Roux still rules the roost in a long-running addiction

Auxerre's manager is one of the best-known faces in France. Phil Gordon talks to a marathon man

Nine months ago, Arsène Wenger was the most wanted man in France. On Wednesday night, however, the Arsenal manager will be given a cold dose of reality when he confronts the face every French citizen could name in an identity parade.

Guy Roux is the country's longest-serving coach, but it is not his remarkable 41-year tenure with Auxerre that makes his pugnacious features known the length and breadth of France. Roux's fame has spread well beyond the confines of the Stade Abbé Deschamps, where he and Wenger will meet in the Champions' League, thanks to his "double", which is one of the best-loved puppets on Les Guignols, the Gallic Spitting Image.

Even the hallowed Paris restaurant Fouquet's fell under the spell of the man portrayed as a Burgundy peasant. "Even though most of the diners were businessmen they recognised me," Roux recalled. "When the waiter arrived at my table with the bill, the place fell silent. When I got out my credit card, everyone applauded me."

Roux, who will celebrate his 64th birthday on 18 October, ought to have had his image imprinted on banknotes for what he has done for Auxerre in particular, and for French football in general, since embarking on his coaching career in 1961 with his one and only club. It is an unrivalled story, yet with France the nation only truly developing a taste for football in the last decade, it has taken television to provide Roux with his high public profile.

Apart from his alter ego on Les Guignols, Roux is the premier analyst for TF1's football coverage. A kind of Gallic Big Ron, minus the jewellery and tan, he has been in the commentary box for almost every Champions' League evening involving French clubs over the years. His talent at his day job has, however, provided few screen opportunities this season.

Just one point from the opening two Champions' League games means Auxerre need to halt Arsenal's hegemony in Group A. Pressure? Forget it. Roux is the man who has earned eternal gratitude for putting a town of barely 60,000 people on the map.

Auxerre were in the French fourth division in 1961 when injury forced the 23-year-old Roux to hang up his boots as a midfielder at the club. He took over as coach, and neither he nor Auxerre have looked back. Roux's crowning glory was winning the French Double in 1996, but when he "retired" two years ago to become the club's general manager it was one of his few mistakes.

Roux had more time to devote to television, but the man who discovered Eric Cantona and shaped the career of Laurent Blanc discovered that he missed the view he had enjoyed at the Abbé Des-champs for the previous four decades.

"I used to come into the club at 7am to start my day," said Roux. "The pitch was my drug. I knew that when I retired, when I felt as if I had overdosed on football. But six months later, I still felt the same. I sat in the stand and the adrenalin was flooding through. Yet it was terrible to be impotent.

"The essential factor in my life is the pitch. Even on Sunday afternoons, I'm at the stadium watching our reserve team. But my period of abstinence opened my eyes. It's impossible to do all the duties I used to. Yet, I cannot give up Auxerre – I'm like a smoker who has stopped completely, but only had to touch one cigarette to start again."

It is management, though, which can be truly dangerous to one's health. Last November, Roux was rushed to hospital and underwent the same heart surgery as his friend Gérard Houllier. The Liverpool manager was one of the first people to telephone Roux as he recuperated.

Restored to his beloved bench, Roux passed a milestone two weeks ago when he completed his 783rd French first division match in charge of Auxerre. In all, Roux has 2,000 matches under his belt, yet he can see one man overtaking him, one day.

"Arsène Wenger is better placed than me, given his age [51] and that his team are always in Europe," said Roux. Indeed, there is a feeling that Wenger could easily spend the next decade at Highbury and put his club before his country.

In January, France Football wrote of Wenger being at the crossroads, but when its readers implored him to take an open invitation from Michel Platini to succeed Roger Lemerre as national coach, Roux pointed out: "I don't see Arsène leaving a club like Arsenal for a job where you have 10 games a year. Maybe in seven or eight years this idea will appeal to Arsène."

Roux, though, intends to stick to his own route. "I never dreamed Auxerre would be at this height," he said. "We don't have a prince to back us [like Monaco], or a car factory [Juventus], but we have know-how and heart."